In The Ruins
by TrueColorsNeverFade
Summary: Holly's first quest was only the beginning. Kidnapped by giants and being saved was barely starching the surface of her biggest journey. In order for Holly to make it out of her next journey she is going to have to save and destroy lives. Sequel to 'Promises'. High Teen rating. Discontinued.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own the Percy Jackson series. All real people, places or things are used fictitiously.

**Claimer: **I do however own my own original characters, fanfiction plot/idea, and all unknown people places or things, for they are my own creations. Please ask to use any of them.

**WARNING:** Giants' diet may disturb some people, starvation, mild swearing and reference to PTSD/anxiety disorder.

**Plot:** Holly's first quest was only the beginning. Kidnapped by giants and being saved was barely starching the surface of her biggest journey. In order for Holly to make it out of her next journey she is going to have to save and destroy lives. Sequel to 'Promises'.

**"In The Ruins"**

**Chapter 1 "Kidnapped,"**

Last thing Holly was expecting was two giants coming out of the forest. She froze unbelieving what was happening. Two full grown giants charging at you at full speed was completely terrifying. She shuffled through her backpack looking for her sword but came a horrifying conclusion, she had left it on her bed. She did the only thing she could do.

"Castor! Pollux!" screamed Holly. They both turned around but not because they had heard her scream but the fact the stomping giant feet were causing the ground to shake. Holly tried running towards her brothers as fast as she could. She was a good runner but she was no match for two full grown giants. Her brothers were running towards her. She didn't see any swords so she had no idea what they were going to use to help.

Holly kicked and screamed when one of the giants scooped her up. She bite its hand. It yelped nearly dropping Holly. She fought with all her might but she wasn't strong enough to break free even with vine growing up the legs of the giant, the vines kept twisting. She tried to call out other forces for nature but it was too hard to do being that she couldn't focus being terrified out her mind.

"Holly!" cried Pollux. He could have ran fast as a high-speed train he wouldn't have been able to save Holly. He kept trying to chase after Holly. He wasn't going to give up until it was completely hopeless. Castor at this point had turned and ran towards to camp to get help but there was no way he would be able to get before Holly would be gone.

Holly screamed when the other giant threw Pollux back. The second giant fell to its knees. The other one couldn't figure out why. The second giants began to swing at nonexistent things. Holly's eyes got big as she realized what she had done. She looked at her own hands. She couldn't believe she could that to any living creature. Evil or not. It wasn't right. She didn't know how to fix it, all she could do was watch the giant destroy himself in the most gruesome ways, slowly and painfully. In a blink of eye she was no longer in the forest but an icy mountain.

The giant suddenly let go of Holly and she freefell into the snow. She was surrounded by giants; young and old. She wasn't sure if it was the cold air or pure fear that was making her shake. She could feel their evil intentions pouring out of their eyes.

"Guest not food, Dark Lady says so," grumbled the giant that had kidnapped Holly "Her danger," it added. She hadn't meant to hurt the giant. But she was too scared to argue with the giant.

A young giant, toddler but almost as tall as semi-truck, tried to poke Holly was a log just dipped into the fire. Holly would take a cage over the burning log any day. She realized she still had her backpack. She supposed the food in it would last her for a little while. Holly looked around and saw stacks of cages. She looked more closely to see they were filled with living people. She was confused.

* * *

Back at Camp Half-Blood a public camp meeting was turning into World War Three. The Ares Cabin wanted to go straight up into the mountain and killed the whole colony of giants. The Athena Cabin wanted to trick the giants into giving Holly back. The Apollo Cabin was trying to heal Pollux who had nearly died, it was taking all of them to do that. The Demeter Cabin wanted revenge on the giants for all the plant life they had destroyed, they didn't care about Holly. The Aphrodite Cabin was too busy doing their hair but a few did care about Holly though just didn't have any ideas but were offering to help. The Hermes Cabin wanted to sneak up into the mountain and kidnap Holly from the giants. The Hephaestus's Cabin want to use one of their new inventions to rescue Holly.

"While you brats figure out how to save my kid I'm going to Olympus to get permission to let you brats kill those beasts. Don't look at me like that, no one hurts my kids or strawberry plants. Anthony come with me, I need a reason for Ares not to kill me," ordered Dionysus. Some of the campers looked at Anthony with jealousy that Dionysus could remember his name and he was going to Olympus. Anthony on the other hand swore several times under his breath in several languages.

"Bring him back alive, the last thing I want to do is find a new fitness teacher," joked Chiron. Everyone rolled their eyes. Anthony flipped off Chiron when he wasn't looking.

"You Ares boys, always showing your affection so fondly," chuckled Chiron. The Ares boys looked murderous. One of the boys had a random camper in a headlock to take out his frustration.

"Marcus let go of James," sighed Chiron. Teenage boys. He wasn't sure what was worse, the boys or the girls these days. Dionysus and Anthony left in a blink of any eye.

"Just pick three campers and have them figure it out on their own. These are demigods, not mortal children," sighed Jay, leaving Pollux to his younger siblings. Everyone was silently at that. It did sound like a good idea.

"As much as I would love to kill those things for taken my sister I have to repair the freaking fields. We can't afford to lose that many strawberries," told Caster. He was already dressed for farm work.

"How do we decide?" asked a young from the Hermes cabin. No one answered for a second.

"Any volunteers, older then thirteen?" asked Chiron. Presley was the first to step up. No one was surprised there.

"I don't want to lead it though," said Presley. Jay didn't argue with the fact of Presley going, the emotional factor was outweighed by the benefits Presley would give the trio.

"I'll do it," offered a boy from the Hermes Cabin. No one knew who it was until he moved out of the mass of people that were in the Hermes Cabin. It was Luke. No one doubted he was a good choice.

"I want to as well," offered a girl coming out from within the mass of the Aphrodite Cabin. She had long curly black hair and stormy gray eyes. Given everyone in that cabin changes their looks so often they had no idea who it was.

"Miss Beauregard, I presume!" questioned Chiron. He hoped he was right, he thought he was. He really hated it when they changed appearances. He hated when they looked like a former camper that was dead, it brought back nasty memories.

"Selena sounds prettier," said Selena. She wasn't that fond of her last time. She did care about Holly but she also wanted a reason to get Holly to tell her what happened to Ava. She wanted to know the truth.

"That's it. Pack up and you'll leave when Mr. D. gets back with word if you three can kill the giants or not," announced Chiron. The Ares Cabin huffed away, peeved that none of them had been quick enough to volunteer.

* * *

Holly kept her mind busy by figuring out rations, she had to keep herself fed for long as possible. She had ten granola bars, two dozen strawberries, two chicken sandwiches, stuff to make three turkey sandwiches, dozen raspberries, three small applesauce containers, a pack of gum, five bottles of water and two Sierra Mists. Trying to live any amount of time on that stuff wasn't going to be easy. She refused the giants meal offering. She wasn't hungry. She was too scared to eat.

Night fell, Holly shook in her cage. Metal at night got really cold, especially at night. She took out wool gloves and wool socks she had in her backpack from the winter, it was April so she hadn't taken them out yet. She took out a small bar of Ambrosia she found in baggy in her backpack, she'd use it if she had to. She found a match and set the bar on fire sending the offering to her father begging for his help. She took out a second bar and offered it Apollo, he seemed logically since she could freeze to death or starve to death up here.

The sleep was dreamless but not peaceful. She kept having a feeling of something bad was about to happen. She was trembling for deeper reason, sure she was cold but she knew that wasn't the reason she was shaking. She muttered ancient prayers. One of the giants knocked into her cage by accident and she almost went tumbling down the hill but another giant caught her cage and but her back.

"You no hurt," said a giant sticking its face up close to the cage. Holly jumped back moving as far away as she could from the face. Its breath stuck horribly.

"I no hurt. Me just girl," said Holly slowly and softly. Befriend one of them she might stay alive longer. The giant was taller than the toddler but not as big as the one that kidnapped her. She supposed it was like a teenager or something.

"Dark Lady angry, want revenge," told the giant. Who was the Darky Lady? Holly had no idea who that was. She wished giants could speak more intelligently.

"Why?" asked Holly.

"Wine told Dove and War, they get angry. Hurt Dark Lady, she angry. Make Wine pay," told the giant. Holly kind of understood that. Wine was her dad, Dove was Aphrodite and War was Ares. They were angry about Ava. Dark Lady had to be Hecate. Holly groaned.

"Girl pain?" questioned giant.

"No girl, not-pleased," sighed Holly. She hated talking like this. She wasn't use to talking like this. She was no Athena kid but she was still intelligent.

"At me?" said the giant getting teary eyed. This took Holly back. She looked around at the other giants, emotionless brutes. A nice giant, that was strange.

"Not at you," said Holly ending the conversation. She tried to sleep but couldn't. A horrible scream had her wide awake. The screams were endless. She couldn't stand not being able to do anything.

Holly closed off her mind to most of what happened the next few hours. She just couldn't handle what she saw and heard. The giant that had saved her had refused to eat breakfast, it didn't take that long for Holly to realize why. She barely managed to puke outside of her cage. She couldn't look at the turkey and ham sandwiches the same way anymore.

Soon the days had turned into three months. Holly's food was gone about a month ago. She was living off gum. She was dehydrated, starving and the exposure to the cold was making her sick. She had lost nearly twenty pounds, she was nothing more than skin and bones. She could barely stay awake these days. She was getting so frail she might not wake up the next time she went to sleep. She was slowly losing hope of being saved and her faith in the gods was slowly dying with her. She needed help now.

She found her cage being swung around as her giant friend had taken her from the colony and ran away. She could feel the air slowly ease up with the coldness. The next time she had opened her eyes there was a fire with a human sized shelter close by. She saw her giant friend on watch duty. No cage in sight. She eased out of curled up position toward the fire.

"Berries," told the giant pointing to a bowl next to the fire. Holly slowly itched over and began to snack on berries, all kinds. She felt strength slowly regain in her body as she came across a view wild grapes. She was still was skin and bones but some food was better then none.

"Thank you," replied Holly. She knew she needed to eat meat but she couldn't do it after watching the giants eat people. She was so disgusted. She would never look at any kind of meat the same way again.

She was sleeping next to the fire when she heard crackling twigs. She was up tensed like the giant in a matter of seconds. She had one of her twin daggers out. She was ready to kill if she had to. She was weak but she could still fight.

"Kill it!" yelled Presley.

"Don't you dare!" yelled Holly with all her might. They weren't going to hurt the giant. He was a good giant.

"Holly?" questioned Selena. Holly didn't want to see herself from the eyes of the trio of demigods in front of her.

"It's me," said Holly. Selena looked unbelieving it was Holly. Luke warily watched the giant though he did seemed concerned about Holly. While Presley just wanted to kill the giant that was the whole point of this quest to him, to kill monsters.

Selena dug around in her backpack for warmer clothes to give Holly. Selena was able to come up with a hat, gloves, a coat, socks and boots. Everything was big on Holly but she didn't care. It was warm and that was enough for her.

"Put that freaking thing down! He wouldn't hurt a fly, he probably just saved my life!" barked Holly at Luke and Presley. She may be smaller than ever and freezing but she still could yell. She didn't care if she had to rip their weapons out of his hands. Luke lowered his weapon as did Presley but Presley kept eying the giant up.

Luke kept forcing Holly to eat. He had plenty of fatting food in his backpack for this very reason. The longer it took them worse shape he knew Holly would be in. Looking at her he wonders if she could have even made it two, three more days. He doubted it. Jay was going to have a field day when they got Holly back.

"I can't eat anymore. I'll get sick. I want to keep down the food I just ate," grumbled Holly. Luke stopped forcing her to eat, there was no point for her to eat more if she was just going to throw it up. There would be no gain there.

The group was silent. Eerily silent. Holly was passed out curled up between Luke and Selena. Presley was barely staying awake. Silena kept trying to figure out the tension between Holly and Presley. She kept wondering if Holly could see something about Presley that she and Luke couldn't. Luke looked down at the small girl sleeping. He couldn't understand how the gods let her suffer so long. She was just a kid. It was just another reason that things needed to change. He wondered if her views had changed or if she stood by the goods.

"Do you feel that?" asked Selena. She could feel the aura of the group starting to clash. It felt like Selena and Presley were fighting without even being near each other. She wondered if it was possible for them to be fighting each other in their dreams. She supposed it was possible.

"Feel what?" asked Luke, he didn't feel anything. Now that Selena had said something he could tension. He could feel anger and hatred radiating from Holly. Selena went by Presley and felt no besides the tension that had been there all day long.

"Any idea if Dionysus children can have magical empathy or something?" asked Selena. She could feel it again as she went back by Holly. Luke wasn't sure. He hadn't heard of it but then again there wasn't many of them.

"Maybe it does happen but rarely and since he doesn't have many kids in the first place so it would be extremely rare," offered Luke. He didn't know all about demigods and their abilities nor did he care to.

_"You knew how to get rid of that spirit!" screamed Holly. Her violet eyes spewing of anger, hate, regret, betrayal and frustration. She wasn't holding back her emotions. She wanted to strangle Presley. _

_ "She was going to die one way or another. She would have died in a car accident, I believe," growled Presley. Holly only got more upset. Vines started to lash out at Presley and he kept trying to whack them away. _

_ "It isn't your job to play fate," snapped Holly. No one had the right to do that. She didn't believe that even the Fates should have that right. But she wasn't in charge of Olympus, that wasn't her call to make. _

_ "The gods didn't help so it mustn't have mattered," replied Presley. Holly's temper hit the boiling point. She let her temper start build into a huge lash of her powers. All that time with the giants had been able learn what she was capable of and how to get her highest abilities. _

_ "You're so freaking arrogant! My father is right, all heroes are arrogant and selfish! You all think your better than the gods but you aren't, you are all just like them!" yelled Holly. Holly knew she wasn't better than any god. She wasn't a hero either. She wasn't uncommonly brave, strong-willed or ambitious. She had no interests in epic quests or being remembered historically. She wasn't able to save Ava, she was no hero. _

_ "You are one of us," retorted Presley. He didn't understand how she could stand by the gods. They didn't march up into the mountains and save her. Some didn't even want to do a rescue quest._

_ "I'm no hero nor do I want to be," replied Holly. She wanted to be normal for once. Even at camp she still wasn't like the other demigods. She had to be three fourths god, she hated being different like that even with its benefits. _

The dream faded away after Holly choose to end it. Selena set up two tents, one for the boys and another for the girls. Luke was going to wake up Selena for watch duty but Holly was clinging to her while she was sleeping. He couldn't bring himself to wake both of them. So he woke up Presley. He knew he needed sleep, if he fell asleep on watch duty that would defeat the purpose.

"Don't let her fool you, she isn't as innocent as she seems," told Presley. His usually bright blue eyes were a dark ominous blue. Luke had always suspected things were missing from the events that took place that lead to Ava's death, at least on Presley's end of the story. He was starting to wonder if the boy was more dangerous and sinister then any of them realized. He didn't think too much about it. He was too tired to.

The four of them were going to save to travel across the country to get back to Camp Half-Blood. They should have been half-way there but they couldn't stop fighting. Eventually Presley kept going without them getting train ticket. Leaving the other three with no money. So they had no choice but to go into the city. Holly was able to get a lot for the three of them, being that she was still a kid. She would go into organizations that help people on the streets and she always came out with something. Silena was more the organizer and manager of everything, she'd send IMs to Camp to let them know what was going on, she'd find places for them to set up camp and managed whatever money they were able to make off the streets. Luke would steal food, clothes, blankets, pillows and really anything he could get his hands on. The things that weren't useful for them he'd sell and give the money to Silena to manage.

It was a slow moving but soon as they had enough money, food and other necessary it speed up. By the time they were in New York City Holly was at a healthy weight; actually more than healthy once she had gotten her strength back she was running and exercising more which had made her stronger and healthier than ever before. One less things Luke would have to explain. The whole thing with Presley running off was going to be hard enough to explain let alone if Holly came back nothing more the skin and bones.

The arrival back at camp was a mini-victory for the group. No one even noticed they were back barely. Everyone was so busy doing their own thing. The fact Holly looked like a different person now didn't help things, she didn't look like the Holly they remembered going missing. Anthony even had to take a double take.

"Holly, my sweet little angel," whispered Anthony as he picked Holly up in a hug. He actually struggled a bit when doing the bear hug, she had more muscle mass now. Muscle weighs more than fat after all. Luke and Silena couldn't help not smiling.

"So why did Presley come back so much earlier then you guys. He was being a pain in my ass and wouldn't tell me a thing," grumbled Anthony pulling Holly down. Holly liked being on the ground better than in a bear hug she decided.

"He is a pain in the ass all the time," replied Luke. Everyone had to crack a smile.

"True but more than usual. I think Dionysus was ready to strangle him or at least turn him into a dolphin," told Anthony. Holly squeaked when out of nowhere Pollux and Castor came and each pulled her into a bear hug.

"Don't you ever get kidnapped again," said Pollux swinging Holly back and forth. Castor was too since they were hugging her at the same time.

"I don't plan on it," gasped Holly barely able to breath in the hug. But she wasn't complaining. She missed her brothers despite their overprotective nature.

"Missed you kiddo," said Castor ruffling Holly's hair after Pollux let go so Holly could be free.

"Missed you guys too," replied Holly.

The next visitor was Dionysus himself. Luke was surprised when he seen Dionysus's whole face light up when he saw Holly. It was strange to see a god care so much about their children.

"You need to always carry your sword," told Dionysus. Holly turned red. She rarely forgot her sword but the one time she did she wasn't going to live it down.

"Anyways nice work there with that giant. First time I seen one of my kids doing that, you aren't a normal demigod are you," said Dionysus. Holly turned brighter red. She was completely embarrassed now. She had totally forgotten about the other giant and what she did to it. Telling her that she was so different even for a demigod wade her feel even more embarrassed.

"With that much power comes heavy burdens," added Anthony. Holly hid behind Luke a bit. This had been very embarrassing and actually rather demanding. After being alone with giants for three months and with only Luke and Silena for another month social situations were still an adjustment.

"Go visit Jay. You look like you've lost twenty-five pounds," told Anthony. Holly rolled her eyes, it was a lot more than twenty-five pounds she lost. She weighed maybe ninety pounds when she got away from the giants.

"You shouldn't be that worried. She weighed a lot less than she does now when we found her," grumbled Silena. She thought Holly looked perfectly healthy now and before this happened. She didn't like how people focused so much on weight, their weight and the weight of others. Love based on looks just wasn't pure enough for her.

But Anthony still forced Holly to visit Jay. Jay kicked Anthony out of his office though. Jay was less worried about Holly's weight and more about her mental state. Holly was eleven and in the world of demigods that was plenty old enough to make her own decisions and not need people telling her what is and isn't important.

"What shape were you in when Luke, Selena and Presley found you?" asked Jay.

"They didn't really find me, stumbled upon me. One of the giants had rescued me away from the colony. I weighed no more than seventy pounds," told Holly. Jay's eyebrows moved. She weighed eighty-five now, Jay was impressed by her recovery in the past month. In his viewpoint Holly didn't need to gain or lose any more weight.

"Being with only giants for so long did you find it hard to be in a large group setting afterwards?" asked Jay. He wanted to make sure no one would push Holly too hard.

"Yeah, three months in solitude it was bound to happen. It's still a bit stressful," admitted Holly. She had no reason to hide it. She wasn't ashamed by it. She didn't even think there anything wrong with it. She was young enough not to have any shame when it comes like medical things.

"Just do it gradual. The biggest challenge is going to be breakfast, lunch and dinner. To be honest if you need to skip the classes do it, none of the adults will hold it against you," told Jay.

"Thanks, can I go now?" asked Holly. She was fidgeting non-stop. All she could think about was escape. The walls of Jay's office seem to be closing in on her. Her body was in flight mode.

"Yeah, sure," said Jay. Holly took off as soon as she heard 'yeah'.

Once outside of the office Holly was confused by what had just happened. She had never felt like that before. She didn't want to go back in there anytime soon. She swore her stress level was up ninety percent. She went straight to her cabin nearly running into a group of Ares kids. They cursed at her and she flipped them off. She ran into her cabin and went to her bed. She sat there on her bed crossed-legged until her breath was no longer rapid and was calm.

* * *

Thanks for reading, please review. I live off reviews. If you see any mistakes let me know, I'm not perfect. Might be putting up a poll for this story in the future.


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